Marc Crawford was fired by both the Los Angeles Kings and the Dallas Stars after 2 seasons on a 3 season contract. In fact, Crawford is still owed $1,101,654 by whoever ends up buying the Stars. However, both of these teams have broken free from their respective Marc Crawford eras. The Kings, who during Crawford’s twoseasons actually had a decent young, offensive team but nothing close to a decent goalie, have made the playoffs in 2 of the 3 years since Crawford’s departure. While the Dallas Stars are just into their first 8 games of the Glen Gulutzan era… but look like an entirely different team, even with a huge offensive departure. Last Saturday’s game had all the feeling of a Game 7… because it was literally Game 7 of the year for the Kings. After watching a few Stars games, I feel they are going to have a great year and will be battling with the Kings in the Pacific for most of it. Or until Kari Lehtonen gets hurt.

No, I don’t mean Lehtonen will bring the pain…I mean he will actually get injured at some point of the season.

That’s right. Dustin Penner, the man who was traded for a 1st Round Pick and a Former 1st Round Pick and a 3rd Round Pick, has 1 assist and 19 penalty minutes in 6 games. On the brightside… at least he’s +1, right? Well Coach Murray andPenner had a little heart-to-heart chat today after practice. And by chat… I’m hoping that means he forced Penner to watch his past goals A Clockwork Orange style.

And as a bonus… Dustin Penner’s diet tips… from 2009.

You’d be hard pressed to find a Kings fan who isn’t disappointed in Dustin Penner’s start to the season. At the end of the day, I think we all want to see Dustin Penner succeed. He’s got a great smile and a good attitude and because his success will make the Kings team better. But the Dustin Penner that the Los Angeles Kings have seen for 31 games is probably the worst version of Dustin Penner there has been in his NHL career. It might be time to let him get fat again… cause at least he was scoring then.

Now that looks like a 30 goal scorer if I’ve ever seen one.

BREAKING NEWS UPDATE!!!: After talking with Dustin Penner, Coach Murray has decided that Scott Parse belongs on the 2nd line with Mike Richards and Dustin Brown. That means Penner will be skating with Jarret Stoll and Brad Richardson. Now that’s a good-looking line!

No seriously… those men are gorgeous.

Well… we’ll try this again. Even though it’s only happened once so far… be sure to play the Internet’smost struggling new game show… PennerPoint! That’s right, if you can correctly predict what period and what time Dustin Penner gets his 1st point of the night in the game against the Stars… you win a free t-shirt. Feel free to enter in the comments below here or reply to me on Twitter with your predictions using the hashtag #PennerPoint. Because if he doesn’t get one tonight… we may have to change the game to WestgarthPoint.

Okay… trying something new tonight…. it’s Parse VS Penner. That’s right… we desperately want to give away a t-shirt tonight. So all you have to do is decide who will get a point first tonight against the Stars… Scott Parse or Dustin Penner. Put your guesses in the comments or reply on Twitter with #ParseVSPenner.